With the impending sale of beleaguered ecommerce platform Snapdeal to Flipkart, several online sellers have raised concern about payment of dues for sales on the platform, pushing online seller group All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) to seek help from the corporate affairs ministry and the commerce ministry . The group has also threatened to make a civil complaint to bring a stay on the sale.

AIOVA, a body of over 2,000 online merchants who sell on multiple ecommerce platforms, sent a mail to MCA secretary Tapan Ray and commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday , stating that over 500 sellers had complained to the group regarding unsettled financial matters with the current management of Snapdeal.

“Most of sellers have stopped selling on Snapdeal. But at least 500 members still have uncleared dues from before, and they are worried if the payments will be made if Snapdeal is sold,“ an AIOVA spokesperson said.

The association has also asked the authorities to “hold the winding downsalemerger of above mentioned company subject to approval by 75% of sellers doing active business on the platform.“ They cited the case of online platform Askmebazaar, which shut down last year, which reportedly left several sellers with unpaid dues. “We need assurance that payments will be made by Snapdeal or the merged entity . We will file a civil complaint asking to stop the sale of Snapdeal till it clears sellers' dues,“ the spokesperson said. Snapdeal said in a statement that, “payments continue to be made as per defined payment cycles, with pre-existing robust mechanisms to address escalations and grievances.“

ET reported last week that Snapdeal's investors had agreed for the sale of the Delhi-based firm to Flipkart, following weeks of board meetings wherein Japan's SoftBank, the largest stakeholder in Snapdeal, was working to get the necessary consent from early investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.